hwilson41

Susan - DON'T DO THIS TO ME!!! ← Susan, I'll be very curious how long it takes you to read Charcuterie from cover to cover. It didn't take me very long, and I'm a somewhat slow reader . Anna, not to worry. It's sort of like sex. The longer you go without, the better it is when you finally get there .

You are probably a more noble person than I, Anna, but that would really piss me off . Re my current bacon experiment ("practicing..." as one of the authors says), made it back from the Amish farm late yesterday, with one piece of pork belly that looked amazing. It measured roughly 11 x 17 inches and weighed 11.5 lbs (I have pics, but will save them for the end result). I cut it in half, applied the maple cure from the recipe, with 1 tsp or so of pepper added to each recipe, and socked the two pieces away in 2 gallon ziplocks. It was over 2" thick in many places, so I'm doubtful that it will fully cure in 7 days, but we shall see. Also brought back some apple wood from a friend's farm that I will use to smoke it. I can hardly wait .

Hmmm...I never would have thought of that (smoking skin up vs down). Thanks for the suggestion. Did you smoke the first belly entirely with the skin side down? Based on zero experience , that sure sounds to me like it might be the major culprit. I think I'll smoke my first one skin side down, just to see how it works out. I can't wait to get going on this, because I really, really love good bacon . Thanks again for the help.

Chris, I think you should buy the Bradley Smoker post haste. Tell your wife that I said it was OK . So how did the black pepper cure turn out? Tasty, or too bland to be worth the trouble, or what? Since this is my first time out making bacon, I'm flying blind. I've made a lot of sausage, but I'm as green as you can get when it comes to making bacon (hmmm...makin' bacon...has a nice ring to it ).

This thread is absolutely fascinating, not to mention educational. I've read Charcuterie cover to cover at least twice since getting it for Christmas, and will be joining the fun this weekend . A friend and I located an Amish farmer in southern Maryland who raises grain fed hogs and we're gettting 10 lbs or so of fresh pork belly on Thursday. I intend to start with the "sweet" version of regular bacon, which will be smoked over apple wood, and pancetta. At this point, my inclination for the bacon is to use Turbinado sugar in the basic cure (same amount?), add maple syrup and some dark brown sugar, and a fair amount of ground black pepper to the recipe(s) in the book. I'm looking for opinions, suggestions, or what-have-you from those who have led the way here, Ronnie, Anna N, bigwino, Chris, et al. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. TIA.

Is there any reason why you couldn't just put a steam basket in 2" or so of water, bring the temp up to steaming, put the veggies in and then take them out when they've steamed to your satisfaction? Seems a lot simpler than a system of air locks, super heated water, etc. Am I missing something?

No doubt you did . That's as lovely looking a pork roast as I've seen in many moons. Off to buy the cookbook and a nice pork roast. Thanks for sharing and for the inspiration.

Hmmm...not a Maryland thing, but perhaps a Chesapeake Bay thing (I'm in VA). My wife and I just returned from the Bay area in California, where we went to celebrate her dear aunt's 84th birthday. Of course, we had Dungeness crab one night, and it was very tasty, but on the way back to our motel I told my wife that, while getting the meat was much easier, it still didn't have the flavor of our beloved blue crabs from the Bay. Re your remark about home grown tomatoes, which we also love, I'm reminded of an old C&W song that came out years ago, one line from which is "There's only two things that money can't buy, and that's true love and home grown tomatoes."

Does anyone know of a store in the DC/MD area that carries the Fine Alambic Brandy? Pearson's will order it, but doesn't have it in stock. TIA.

I couldn't agree more. Here's a particularly ludicrous example.

Bump! Just a note of thanks to Florida Jim for the great article on Beaujolais and recommendations. I'm am neither up on the finer points of wines, nor well informed about what to look for in any particular vintage. But like the moron in the art gallery, I may not know much about art, but I know what I like . Inspired by FJ's article, I decided to try a few bottles of Beaujolais at one of our local wine purveyors, and eventually stumbled onto a 2003 Morgon, Domaine des Versauds. I don't know all the buzzwords, but to me this is a wonderful everyday wine for around $11 a bottle. It is remarkably flexible in terms of what sorts of food it accompanies, and just a real pleasure to sip with a bit of good cheese and crackers. So, long story short, thanks Jim for the bit of education .

Not quite whole, but sliced into bit sized pieces and lightly fried, chorizo is great in sausage and shrimp jambalaya. It's what I use if I'm out of andouille. I haven't tried this, but I suspect it would also be quite good in a pot of Alsatian sauerkraut, lightly fried just to brown the skin and then buried in the kraut for the last 30 minutes or so of cooking.

You have before you the makings of a superb sandwich. Some sourdough bread, a little mayo and spicy mustard, dill pickle and lettuce. Season meat with salt and pepper if necessary, a chunk of sharp cheddar on the side, and you're home. Better yet, just send me the venison and I'll take care of it for you .

I usually cook collards according to Bill Neal's recipe in Bill Neal's Southern Cooking, but they do take several hours to become tender. The pot "likker" is heaven on earth with good homemade cornbread . One secret I have found very useful is to search out a good roadside stand that raises and sells their own collards. Greens that were picked the same day or day before have all the freshness you'll ever get and a wonderful flavor. While doing a google on collards, I stumbled across this recipe by Robert Stehling for creamed collard greens. I haven't tried it, but anybody who studied under Bill Neal, as Stehling did while a student at UNC, is probably a pretty damned good cook, and well informed about Southern cooking traditions. The recipe looks to me to be collards prepared the usual way except using chicken stock for the liquid and adding a good dose of heavy cream for a final simmer. Definitely worth a try IMHO.

Try a separate directory (folder) in your word processor. I use WordPerfect, and have a folder named WPRcps, which contains a lot or recipes (no I didn't count them ). If that becomes too cluttered, there's always sub folders. This also comes in very handy when dinner guests say "Oh, gee, that was so good. Could I have the recipe?" You bet'cha [marches back to computer, pulls up the recipe, hits Ctrl+P, and bingo!].

Shalmanese, I have only one question. What do I have to do to get invited to your house for a week or two ? Seriously, a great job and super photos also. I envy you and your friend and the beautiful meals. Thanks for sharing, and please keep 'em coming.

Chris, what a great and timely topic. I won't be able to play until after Christmas because of travel plans, but I'm all over it when we get home from NC on the 27th. I've been fiddling off and on (more off than on, I fear) with a recipe for all beef Texas hot links for many, many months, and maybe this will prod me into real action now. Great choice, especially for a cold winter night's meal .

I'm assuming NOVA means Northern VA, right? I just bought 11 lbs of chicken today because I'm almost out of chicken stock. All drumsticks, at the Super H Korean market in Fairfax across from Paul VI high school on Rt 50. The price was 0.49/lb . In a way I feel guilty using up the drumsticks and wasting the meat, but the only other option that you can always count on is to drive down to the Eastern Market in DC, but with drumsticks this cheap, it isn't worth the drive down to DC. I've found that if I take a cleaver and split about 6 to 10 of the drumsticks in half, I get a very gelatinous stock even without the feet (which I haven't been able to find anywhere except at Eastern Market).

I'm anything but expert on fish and chips, but I do know a little about the type of beef fat you're talking about. That kidney fat is called suet, and if you can find a real butcher, he can either make or get suet for you. You may have to buy the whole thing, which will be 10 lbs or more, but it can be rendered and will keep forever frozen. And here in the DC area, it's dirt cheap. I got a whole suet from Union Meat Co in the Eastern Market for 70 cents a pound , which presumably included a markup for the vendor! Best deal in town. I'll let others give a definitive answer, but I suspect that lard would not be an acceptable substitute.

What comprises a "true" Philly cheesesteak has been hotly debated elsewhere in eG, but I would opine that the steak and cheese hoagie (or sub) above is what most of us non-Philly natives think of when someone mentions "steak and cheese". Is it a Philly cheesesteak? No. Is it a great sandwich? Damn tootin', baby .

And a Happy Thanksgiving to all from me and my family. We will sit down in about an hour to a turkey done a la Alton Brown, and I am really looking forward to that. I'm not a big fan of turkey, but I love the sandwiches the next day . I am thankful for many things, not the least of which is egullet and the wonderful folks who post here, and especially to those like you, Lucy, who inspire me to do more than I think I can do (which, alas, sometimes proves to be true ). Thanks to all, and special thanks to you Lucy for this wonderful blog.

A friend of mine who lives in the Valley went to Laynes at my request and bought us both some of their country ham. Excellent stuff, per my friend (I haven't tried ours yet). However, in the course of the conversation he had at Laynes, they said they are selling hams from a vendor in Culpeper, i.e., they don't cure their own. I suspect they are getting them from Calhous, but don't know for sure. Re cost, 1/2 a bone-in country ham (~7 lbs) from Laynes cost me $25.

It is a well-established law of cheesodynamics that cheese is never a no-no. ← Hear, hear! Absolutely correct . One of my favorite Tex-Mex dishes is enchiladas, cheese and chili, and I learned about it from some folks named Garcia (Joe T's) in Fort Worth many, many years ago. They used jack cheese, I think, but sharp cheddar works well also.

A sign in Calvert Woodley (DC) last week said the same thing, so I'm assuming it's true. And thanks to Jim for listing a name or two that are worth buying.

You probably need to find a butcher that deals directly with a slaughterhouse (or a broker for a slaughterhouse) rather than a distributor. I'm virtually certain that's where mine came from. You might also want to indicate that you'll buy however much you have to to get it. The butcher I used warned me that I would have to buy the whole suet from one kidney because that's the smallest amount his source would ship, and that it would be 10 pounds or a bit more. I haven't a clue, but will know in about a month . Of course muscle meat gives you unmistakable indications when it goes off, via the smell, but I'm not sure whether fat would do likewise. McGee hints that freezing might solve the problem, but it's unclear whether he's just talking about muscle, or muscle and fat in general (p 101 in the paperback edition).